Leadership in the 21st Century and Strategic Development of Organisations

This essay discusses the importance of leadership in the 21st century and its role in strategic development of organisations. It covers the skills required to become an effective transformational leader, the challenges faced in leadership in the 21st century, and the comparison and contrast of different leadership styles. The essay concludes that effective leadership is crucial for the growth and development of both individuals and organisations.

Running Head: CRITIAL IN BUSINESS
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Critial in Business
12/9/2018

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Executive Summary
Leadership is an important concept in context to every organisation in managing and leading
people towards achieving their goals and objectives. In the 21st century, there has been a shift
in the role of leaders and the leadership theories or styles implemented in the organisation.
The report has discussed well about the leadership, i.e. significance of transformational
leaders in the contemporary organisations in the dynamic business environment. Thus, to
summarise it can be stated that managers or leaders must practice to acquire effective
transformational leadership skills to succeed and grow both, as an individual and leader.
Hence, the growth of transformational leaders will facilitate in growth and achievement of
organisations’ target and lead to success in the future.

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of Organisations...........................................3
Skills required to become effective transformational leader..................................................................4
Transformational leadership in the 21st century.....................................................................................4
Comparison and contrast on the perspectives of 21st century leadership................................................5
Autocratic leadership style in 21st century organisations.......................................................................5
Challenges in the leadership in 21st century...........................................................................................6
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
References.............................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The essay brings about the discussion on the key themes in the strategic business and
management within the context of international business. Literature review on the topic
“Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of organisations” will be described
in this assignment from the multiple perspectives. Leadership in organisations or
organisational leadership refers to the approach of the management through which the leaders
facilitate setting strategic goals for the organisation, and motivating the employees to show
their commitment towards attainment of the goals. Leadership has been considered
significant to the organisational success and higher performance especially in the dynamic
nature of business environment in the 21st century. Thus, essay in the later part will
demonstrate the key concepts, including summary, classification, comparison, and contrast
between the aspects of the selected topic. In this way, readers will acquire a critical
understanding of the concept of leadership and development in the organisations.
Leadership in the 21st century and strategic development of Organisations
Leadership refers to the process of influencing behaviours of the people or a group’s
activities towards the attainment of particular goals and objectives. In other words, it is
defined as an interpersonal influence exercised in context to a situation is directed to the
individuals through communication process leading to achieved organisational objectives.
Thus, a critical analysis will be done in respect to the theme of the essay which will help in
drawing conclusions from studying different perspectives of the authors (Dong et al., 2017).
In context to the selected topic in this essay, leadership in the 21st century refers to a
multidimensional and integrated approach of leadership which is based on the relationships
within organisation. 21st century leadership aims to respond and manage to the various
challenges or issues and the available opportunities in the business environment. With the
beginning of the 21st century, the concept of leadership has been changed a little, as the
organisations are now focused towards implementing new theories of leadership or
management approach in their operations which lead to strategic development of the
organisations in the long run. A paradigm shift has been observed in the leadership models or
styles such as command or control over employees towards flexible, nurturing, and
collaborative style in the 21st century. It has been also found that the leadership in 21st century

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states about acquiring new management skills of leaders to cope with the new and imperative
challenges of increasing global competition in the industry (Sen and Eren, 2012).
According to Dike, Odiwe & Ehujor (2015) it has been stated that to operate and function
effectively or successfully in the dynamic business environment, organisations must ensure
that the leaders or managers possess competent skills. The authors have demonstrated that
the concept of leadership and management in today’s organisations belonging to 21st century
has changed dramatically. In addition, to the other forces uncertainty in organisations is
considered as another aspect or challenge to the organisations, which put pressure on the
organisations to change their approach and adopt comprehensive leadership style.
Comprehensive leadership requires efficient qualities or skills to become leader (Chiu,
Balkundi and Weinberg, 2017).
Skills required to become effective transformational leader
These are the skills which one requires to become effective transformational or democratic
leader in the today’s contemporary organisations. Skills include serving others, courage,
thinking in terms of building relationships, creating value, entertaining new ideas of the
employees or followers in the organisation, and the necessary skill of adaptability. For an
example, it can be stated that the role of transformational leaders has been important and
commonly found in the modern organisations. Thus a transformational leader must instil the
quality of rewarding employees for their effective performance in the organisation (Rae et al.,
2016).
Belias (2014) was of the view that leadership in the 21st century has been positive to the
organisation’s strategic development of the organisations. The author has stated that the
strategic leadership should be transformational as the aim is to serve the organisation.
Organisations face the issues in the changing business environment, which requires managers
or leaders to take initiatives in changing their cultural aspects or management style, which is
facilitated by leadership in the organisation. Thus, leadership is associated with the corporate
culture of the organisations, which also supports the process of articulating a vision and
coordinating with the expectations from the organisational members. A leader with the
sufficient qualities and skills is able to manage change in the organisation leading to
enhanced performance of the organisation (Marques, 2015).

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Transformational leadership in the 21st century
Leadership has three essential components which include the ability to influence, common
goal and the employees who are willing to work and commit themselves towards the vision.
A leader, who accomplishes these components in the organisation, is able to develop strategic
vision and lead employees towards strategic development of the organisation. In addition, it
has been also analysed as per the perspective of Kim and Yoon (2015) who exclaimed that
the authentic leadership style which has been contributing to the organisational development
has been found as transformational leadership. The reason behind the author’s perspective
towards this leadership approach is that it has been considered that transformational leaders
are found to be hopeful, optimistic, development-oriented, and represent an important
attribute of high-moral character. Hence, transformational leaders in the 21st century
organisation act as motivating force towards ensuring growth and development of the
organisation (Jaques, 2017).
Comparison and contrast on the perspectives of 21st century leadership
The comparison has been found in the perceptions of the authors in the above discussion
through their conceptual leadership in the 21st century leading to strategic development of the
organisations. They have stated about the role and importance of transformational leadership.
There were some studies in addition to the mentioned above which expressed the benefit of
transformational leaders. Globalisation has been introduced in the economy, due to which
multinational operate on a wider scale, and bring changes in the management style or culture
of the organisation. This is the reason transformational leadership has been recognised as
relevant and significant in managing changes and strengthening development of the
organisations. Thus, both the authors in their study have revealed the positive influence of
transformational leaders in the organisation describing the similar concept (Ahmad, 2017).
Autocratic leadership style in 21st century organisations
The above discussion has stated about the significance of transformational leadership in the
21st century, as it helps in managing and leading change in the organisational settings which
leads to development of the organisations. However, there have been some conceptual
findings based on the literature as discussed by Amanchukwu, Stanley and Ololube (2015)
stating that autocratic leadership can still be implemented in the 21st century organisations.

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Autocratic leadership is considered vital in many of the organisations (Opoku, Ahmed and
Cruickshank, 2015).
The autocratic style of leadership is most commonly applied to those organisations who
expect error-free outcomes of their managerial practices and the processes implemented
within organisations. Autocratic leadership has been a common and popular style of
leadership practices in the organisations, and led to organisational growth over a period. In
this leadership approach, in the organisations subordinates are dependent on the decisions of
their superiors or managers in the organisation. The authors were of the view that autocratic
leadership is the extreme form of transactional leadership where in the leaders has complete
power over their staff. Decisions are made quick which leads to timely completion to their set
targets and objectives, leading to strategic achievement and development of the organisation.
Thus, according to the author, autocratic leadership is more beneficial in the 21st century, for
the development of both organisations and individuals (Nawaz and Khan, 2016).
The contrast can be highlighted in a way that some leader’s stated transformational leadership
is more significant more to the present-day organisations rather autocratic leadership for the
organisational development. Thus, these authors had different viewpoints on the leadership in
the 21st century and strategic development of the organisations (Wang et al., 2016).
Challenges in the leadership in 21st century
Leadership in the 21st century applied in the organisations faced some challenges which
affected the organisations development and performance in the long-run. These challenges
included an apparent gap in the skill levels. Managers faced problems in the handling of tasks
or practices with the use of technologies due to the shortage of skills of the employees in the
organisations, which can be mended through the use of conceptual models (Gilpin, 2018).
The conceptual model in case of the organisations, in the 21st century includes some elements
for the leadership development of the management practices. These consists of
capacity/competence, program target, area served, program content, training level, content of
the program, learning approach and the implementation methods. These were the essential
components of the leadership programs which were used in the organisations to assess their
growth and performance in context to the leadership practices relevant to 21st century. Thus,
these were the essential components of the conceptual model which were applied to the

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management practices in 21st century leading to the strategic development of organisations
(Redmond, S. and Dolan, 2016).
Conclusion
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that leadership has been a wider and
popular concept in the modern organisations. Leadership process or practices in the
contemporary organisations has undergone changes in the recent years which state about the
need of leadership skills and qualities. The essay has described well about the perspectives on
the leadership in 21st century and the leading strategic development of the organisations using
multiple viewpoints of different authors. Hence, leaders must recognise the value and
importance of effective leadership practices in the organisations to enhance the development
of the individuals and organisations.

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References
Ahmad, H.H. (2017) Implementation of Strategic Education Policy plan at Micro-level
Contexts: Management and Leadership Challenges. MOJEM: Malaysian Online Journal of
Educational Management, 2(2), pp.1-21.
Amanchukwu, R.N., Stanley, G.J. and Ololube, N.P. (2015) A review of leadership theories,
principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1), pp.
6-14.
Belias, D. and Koustelios, A. (2014) The impact of Leadership and Change management
strategy on Organisational Culture. [online] Available from:
file:///C:/Users/System04101/Downloads/2996-8812-1-PB.pdf [Accessed 10/12/18].
Celik, A., Akgemci, T. and Akyazi, T.E. (2016) A comparison between the styles of
transformational leaders and authentic leaders in crisis management. International Journal of
Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 6(2), pp. 183-196.
Chiu, C.Y.C., Balkundi, P. and Weinberg, F.J. (2017) When managers become leaders: The
role of manager network centralities, social power, and followers' perception of
leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(2), pp.334-348.
Dike, V.E. (2015) Leadership, and management in the 21st century organizations: A practical
approach. World Journal of Social Science Research, 2(2), p.139.
Dong, Y., Bartol, K.M., Zhang, Z.X. and Li, C., 2017. Enhancing employee creativity via
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transformational leadership. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(3), pp.439-458.
Gilpin, R. (2018) The challenge of global capitalism: The world economy in the 21st century.
United States: Princeton University Press.
Jaques, E. (2017) Requisite organization: A total system for effective managerial
organization and managerial leadership for the 21st century. United Kingdom: Routledge.
Marques, J. (2015) The changed leadership landscape: what matters today. Journal of
Management Development, 34(10), pp. 1310-1322.

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Nawaz, Z.A.K.D.A. and Khan (2016) Leadership theories and styles: A literature
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